Habermas, Jürgen: Legal and Social Theory

Introduction

Widely acknowledged as among the most influential philosophers and social theorists of the twentieth century, the detailed and expansive writings of Jürgen Habermas (1929–) have shaped decades of intellectual discussion and debate. His weighty influence is owed not only to his prolific literary output, which has advanced discourses in fields ranging from aesthetics to epistemology and hermeneutics, communication studies, and philosophy of religion. As a public intellectual seeking not just to understand but to participate in the transformation of late modern society, Habermas has also engaged a long line of contemporary social thinkers, participating in many of the most important social, political, and philosophical debates in recent decades (Harste 2021: 25–54). Nestled at the center of these various contributions, however, is Habermas’s pioneering analysis of social theory, which binds together his theory of law, his studies of modern political economies, and his...